Illinois Basketball: Kylan Boswell eyeing Illini official visit

Illinois basketball has elevated their recruiting ability since Brad Underwood took over the program.

The latest class for the Illini is the 2022 group that features two top 75 players in Ty Rodgers and Jayden Epps, and a player in Sencire Harries who is No. 102 but should probably be ranked better than that.

Illinois’ class of 2022 is the No. 19 class in the country. This group will help build around players like Andre Curbelo, Luke Goode, Brandin Podziemski, and others. Now it is time to shift full focus on the future and the class of 2023.

There are plenty of top recruits still available for the 2023 class, but there is one recruit Illinois is eyeing who would be a game-changer for the program.

Kylan Boswell would be the highest-rated Illinois basketball commit since 247Sports started.

Illinois has been able to land some great talent in the past. Ayo Dosunmu was a four-star recruit. Meyers Leonard was one of the best big men recruits in recent years. But none of them can touch the rating and ranking of Kylan Boswell.

Boswell is a 6-foot-1, 180-pound point guard from Compass Prep and resides in Chandler, Arizona. He is rated as a five-star recruit and ranked as the No. 11 player in the class of 2023. He is also the No. 2 point guard in the nation and the No. 2 player coming out of Arizona.

On January 11, Boswell cut his list down to eight programs. He then proceeded to take his first official visit to UNLV this past weekend. Now it looks like he is ready to schedule a couple of more official visits in the near future.

In an interview with Travis Branham of 247Sports, Boswell mentions that he “loved the staff,” at UNLV. He would then go on to mention that he doesn’t have any official dates but is setting up official visits to both Arizona and Illinois in February.

As of right now, 247Sports has Arizona and Illinois as both “Warm” for Boswell with every other program as “Cool”. I honestly believe this could end up being down to the Wildcats and Illini. I think it is fair to say, Illinois has made Boswell’s top five list considering he only has five official visits.

How can we close on this talented recruit? Illinois has some additional recruiting power here beyond the traditional winning and style of play. Boswell went to Urbana Middle School but then moved out to California for high school. Bringing him back home would be an angle that we could take to land him.

Either way, it is great to hear that Boswell is prioritizing Illinois as one of his first few official visits. We have a legit shot to land the kid. This would be Brad Underwood’s biggest recruiting accomplishment as a coach.